Grains of the Golden Sand
by alliterator
Summary: “All that we see or seemIs but a dream within a dream.” E. A. Poe, “Dream Within A Dream.” Post-Grave, Restless-style. Chapter 4 Added
1. Prologue

Title: Grains of the Golden Sand  
Author: alliterator  
Summary: "All that we see or seem/Is but a dream within a dream." E. A. Poe, "Dream Within A Dream". Post-Grave, Restless-style.  
Spoilers: Spoilers for Season 7 (or at least foreshadowing).  
Disclaimer: If I owned Buffy, do you think I'd be writing fanfiction?  
Feedback: You think I'm going to say no?

Prologue  
  


The window was still broken, pieces of glass sprinkled across the upstairs bedroom, some of them stained with blood. There was a stain on the ground where the bullet wound had bled, but besides that there were no signs that a person had died recently in the room. There was no sign that a girl had cried over her body for hours, pouring out all her pain and frustration in tears. No sign.

The house was empty. The gate was still open from where a murderer had walked in and changed all their lives with a single gun. A single moment. If someone had walked into the house, they would have said that there was a sort of presence that made anyone feel at home. Made you feel relaxed. But currently, there was no one in the house.

The door was shut, but not locked. The doorknob turned and suddenly the door burst open. "Giles!" Dawn yelled at the top of her lungs.

"He might not be back," Buffy entered after Dawn did, closing the door, but not locking it.

"What if he's...?" Dawn didn't finish the sentence for fear that it might come true.

"No, he's not..." Buffy was afraid to say it also. "Anya would have told us if he had... died." She forced herself to say it.

"What about Willow?" Buffy sat down on the couch and folded her hands on her lap.

"She must have remembered or come to her senses," Buffy sat down beside Dawn.

"What if she's dead?" Dawn asked.

"She's not dead," Buffy said.

"How can you be sure?"

Buffy was saved from answering that question when she heard someone cough outside. She went to the door and listened.

"A little help, please!" Anya's voice rang out and Buffy smiled. She opened the door wide and caught Giles as he slipped from Anya's arms.

"Thank you," Giles said quietly.

"I'm just glad you're alright," Buffy said hugging him lightly. She helped him over to the couch and set him down where Dawn immediately hugged him. "Nice to see you, too," he patted her on the back.

"Do you know," Buffy asked him, "what happened with Willow?"

"Xander," Anya said loudly and then a bit quieter "Xander stopped her."

"How?" Buffy sat down beside Dawn.

"It would be better if you asked him that question," Giles said.

"Will he come here?" Dawn asked. "Maybe he'll go to his apartment."

"No," Buffy said. "Right now we have to stay together and help Willow."

Buffy was suddenly alerted to footsteps on the front lawn and when she went over to open the door, she had a sudden feeling that when she opened it, it would be Spike. But when she opened it, she saw Xander and Willow standing huddled together. Willow's face and hair were back to normal and she was shivering as she looked at her feet. "Come on in," Buffy said.

As Willow and Xander came in, Dawn said "I'm gonna go to bed. I need some rest."

"Okay," Buffy said as Dawn walked up the stairs to her room.

As Willow sat down on the couch next to Giles, she opened her mouth in attempt to talk, but then closed it. She opened, then closed it, uncertain of what to say to the people she had tried to kill just hours before.

"I think I need some rest, too," Buffy said and started to walk up the stairs. "Some rest and a shower."

"I'm sorry," Willow blurted out, and then looked down at her feet again.

"It's okay," Buffy said. "You know, I think we all need some rest and relaxation."

"I think you're right," Giles said.

"Yes," Willow whispered under her breath.

Then they all went to get some sleep. Willow refused to go back into her room, so Xander had her stay in Buffy's room and Buffy stayed in Willow's. Buffy gave some blankets to Giles so he could sleep on the couch and she also gave some pillows to Xander, who refused to leave Willow's side. Anya was sitting in a chair, already nodding off to sleep. Buffy noticed that Dawn was already in her bed and asleep, or at least pretending to be asleep.

Buffy went into Willow's room, where so recently had one of her best friends had been shot through the heart and another had turned evil, and fell on the bed. Midst the pillows and blankets, Buffy fell asleep.

And then everyone was asleep. Xander drooled silently on the floor beside Willow who tossed and turned. Anya snorted and snored in her chair, while even Giles drifted off the sleep on the couch.

The occupants of the Summers home were fitfully resting. But they were not going to be relaxing. 


	2. Chapter 1: Dawn's Dream

Title: Grains of the Golden Sand  
Author: alliterator  
Summary: "All that we see or seem/Is but a dream within a dream." E. A. Poe, Dream Within A Dream. Post-Grave, Restless-style.  
Spoilers: Spoilers for Season 7 (or at least foreshadowing).  
Disclaimer: If I owned Buffy, do you think I'd be writing fanfiction?  
Feedback: You think I'm going to say no?

Dawn's Dream

Dawn was in her bed, enveloped in her sheets. They were so white and soft that she never wanted to get out of bed for fear that they might go away. Her pillow was underneath her head and it was so quiet that if she listened softly she could hear the sound of her own heartbeat.

"Dawn, walk up!" Buffy burst into her room. "You are very, very late. I can't believe how late you are."

"What are you talking about?" Dawn didn't want to get up from her bed so she pulled the clock on her nightstand towards her. "It's only..." The clock read 7:30.

"Don't bother with that clock," Buffy reached over and snatched the clock from her. "It's for me and it's too slow. You have to get up."

Dawn yawned. "Why?" she asked.

"Because, sleepy, I'm going to show you the world."

"Show it to me later."

"Later it might not be there."

Dawn lifted her head from her pillow. Buffy had already shattered all hope of sleep. 

"Alright," she said rising from her bed, "you can show me the world. After breakfast."

"Okay," Buffy took Dawn by the hand and pulled her towards the kitchen. "For breakfast, we're having pancakes with peanut butter."

"Ewww," Dawn squeezed her nose. "It smells nasty. On second thought, I think I'll skip breakfast. What's first to show me about the world?"

"High school," Buffy said. Dawn was disappointed. She had already seen high school.

"Can't we go somewhere else?"

"No," Buffy was stubborn, "the high school is where I will show you the world, except I'm can't really show you, and you can't really see the world from high school, but I'm going to do it anyway."

"Was that a run-on sentence?"

"Don't be a smarty trousers."

Dawn sighed. It was time to go to high school.

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

The high school was big and empty. Buffy and Dawn walked side by side down one of the hallways. Dawn took the opportunity to notice how taller she was than Buffy. Maybe Buffy hadn't matured yet?

"The high school's stupid," Dawn whined. "Can't we go to a cooler place, like maybe a different high school?"

"No," Buffy was adamant, "this is the high school where I grew up and this is the high school where I will show you the world. Now, I have to leave." She turned around.

"Leave," Dawn stopped, "but I thought you were going to show me the world?"

"Yes," Buffy face Dawn again, "but I have to find the world myself before I can show it too you. You understand, right?"

"Sure I do," Dawn rolled her eyes, "you're insane."

"Correct. I want you to go to your classes first."

"But I don't know where my classes are," Dawn complained.

Buffy pointed towards a man coming down the hallway. "Get a schedule from him." Then she left.

Dawn walked towards the man. He was sort of chubby. Portly, Dawn thought, I think it's called portly. Dawn stopped when she came up to him. "My sister said you would have my schedule."

"Well, young lady, what's your name?" he pulled out a stack of schedules from his jacket pocket and flipped through them.

"Dawn."

"Dawn, Dawn, Dawn," the man repeated. "Is it short for anything?"

"Nothing," Dawn answered.

"Here it is," the man pulled out a schedule that was bright pink and gave it to her. On the top of the schedule was her name: NOTHING SUMMERS. Instead of classes, all that was written on the rest of the schedule was the word "death."

"There's no room numbers," Dawn said to the man.

"Don't worry," he said, "it's in every classroom."

Suddenly, Dawn heard another voice. "Principal Flutie, I'd like to have a word with you." Dawn saw another portly man coming from the end of the hallway.

"Principal Snyder, it's good to see you," Principal Flutie said.

"Don't give me that 'good to see you' crap. I know it was you who was responsible. Your woolly-headed, liberal thinking led to me being eaten." Principal Snyder started to raise his finger and point it at Principal Flutie.

"Now, now, gentlemen, I think we can settle this outside." Another man was coming up from the hallway. He wasn't portly like the other two, but slim. His skin was a dark brown and he wore suit with a button that had the letters HM on it.

"Who are you?" Dawn asked.

"I'm the Hall Monitor and I'd like to see your hall passes," he said.

"I was eaten by a giant snake that used to be the Mayor," Principal Snyder said.

"I was eaten by a pack of kids that were possessed by hyenas," Principal Flutie said.

The Hall Monitor looked at Dawn. "I wasn't eaten by anything," Dawn said.

"Are you sure?" the Hall Monitor looked at her with questioning eyes. "What's your name?"

"It says here I'm Nothing Summers, but my name's Dawn," Dawn said.

"Dawn Summers," the Hall Monitor put his hand to his chin. "Alright, I'll let you stay, but only because of circumstances. Next time you have to have a hall pass."

"Okay," Dawn said, "I just want to get to me classes."

"I thought you wanted to be shown the world?" the Hall Monitor puzzled. "Oh well. To get to your class, just go through that door." He pointed towards a door that said 'classes this way.' Dawn wondered why she hadn't seen that before.

"Thanks," she said as she opened the door and walked through it.

Inside the classroom everyone stared at her. It was a big classroom, sort of like a college lecture hall, and kids sat in almost every seat. Dawn could see some that she knew, but most were unfamiliar.

"Class, listen up," Giles stood in the front of the classroom holding a metal pointer, "we have a new student. Nothing, would you come here."

Dawn come towards Giles. "My name's Dawn."

"Oh how cute, a nickname," he said. "You can sit over there," he pointed with his pointer to an empty seat, "next to that one kid who was a zombie and that other kid who was a ghost."

"Okay," Dawn went and sat down.

"Can I borrow a pencil?" the kid to the right of her asked.

"Sorry," she replied, "I don't have any."

"Here, here class," Giles said, "we here today to learn about demonology. Up on the black board, I have written some types of demons." On the black board was written BUFFY, KENDRA, FAITH, LARGE AND SMALL BONE EATERS. There's a demon named Buffy? Dawn thought. How weird. "Now, in celebration of our new student, we have a new type of demon to study," Giles moved the black board and behind it sat Spike. He looked the same as when Dawn had seen him last, his hair bleached and he was wearing his duster and had a cigarette in his mouth. "I call him spikus bloodicus, part of the genus of vampirus."

Spike took the cigarette out of his mouth and blew smoke up in the air. "What're you looking at, Little Bit o' Nothing?" he said, his eyes locked on Dawn.

Dawn raised her hand. "Can I go to the bathroom?" she asked Giles.

"Alright," Giles sighed. "Just don't fall in, or else you'll miss the second half of my lecture, 'How Humans Are Related to Demons.'"

Out in the hallway, Dawn felt nervous. "That class in just too weird," she said to herself.

"You're telling me," Dawn turned around and saw Spike. "Just came out to see how you were doing."

"Fine," Dawn lied. "I just need to go to the bathroom."

Spike blew some more smoke in the air. "You don't want to go there. Go to the restroom instead."

"Restroom, bathroom, whatever," Dawn shrugged, "just show me where it is."

Spike motioned with his cigarette at a doorway. Dawn went up to it and the there was a sign on it that said 'all trespassers will be shot.' "Are you sure?" Dawn said, but Spike was gone. "Here goes Nothing," she said and pushed the door open.

The restroom looked surprisingly like the Bronze. Everywhere people were dancing and on stage a band played. Dawn couldn't see who the band was, but she did see that Willow and Xander were among the crowd. Dawn walked over to them and tapped Willow's shoulder.

"Oh hey, Dawnie," Willow said. She was wearing the same clothes as when she had turned evil, but her face was not unusually pale, but cheerful, and her hair wasn't black, but red.

"That nickname is so middle school," Dawn said.

"Oh, right, I heard you were in high school now," Xander said. He looked the same as he always did. "Maybe we should call you by you're real name."

"I don't want to," Willow said, "I want to just call her Dawn."

Dawn ignored her. "So, who's the band?"

"It used to be Dingoes Ate My Baby, but they changed their name," Willow said.

"I hear it's Hyenas Ate The Principal now," Xander said. "Hey, look here comes Oz. He knows stuff. Hey, Oz, what's the band called?"

Oz approached them. "We just changed it. Now, it's called Slayer Ate Her Sister," he said.

"What's it supposed to mean?" Dawn asked him. Oz looked at her quizzically. Suddenly, Dawn saw Buffy in the crowd and waved her over.

"Dawn," Buffy asked excitedly, "did you see the world?"

"I don't know?" Dawn answered, "is the world just Giles talking about demons in a lecture hall?"

"You know," Buffy said to her, "I think I once saw the world. Maybe I can take you to the same place where I saw it."

"That would be neat," Dawn replied. "When can we go?"  
  


"Right now," Buffy said. Then she raised her hand and grabbed Dawn's mouth, holding it shut. Dawn struggled, but Buffy was stronger and soon Dawn was too weak to struggle. Dawn was being deprived of air and if she didn't get any soon, she would die. Slowly, Dawn felt herself going unconscious and she knew that was the point of no return. In Buffy's arms, Dawn went limp.


	3. Chapter 2: Buffy's Dream

Title: Grains of the Golden Sand  
Author: alliterator  
Summary: "All that we see or seem/Is but a dream within a dream." E. A. Poe, "Dream Within A Dream." Post-Grave, Restless-style.  
Spoilers: Spoilers for Season 7 (or at least foreshadowing).  
Disclaimer: If I owned Buffy, do you think I'd be writing fanfiction?  
Feedback: You think I'm going to say no?

Buffy's Dream

The window was unbroken. Buffy watched as rays of light passed through the clean window and wondered how it could have fixed itself. "How did it get like that?," she asked.

"It's always been like that," Dawn said.

Buffy turned to her. "I thought it was broken."

"It is broken," Dawn said. "Look."

Buffy looked back at the window. There was a deep crack that ran down the middle of it, creating little tiny cracks around it. Buffy approached the window and looked outside at the yard. She saw two people sitting on the bench talking. One was Xander. The other was herself.

"Thank you," she said to Xander.

"For what?" he had a look of puzzlement on his face.

"For saving my life," Buffy answered.

"I didn't save your life," Xander replied.

"You were here when I was shot," Buffy told him, "you called the ambulance, you got me to the hospital."

"But I didn't save you."

"If you didn't save me, then who did?"

"She saved you," Xander pointed near the gate and Buffy turned her head to see who was there. It was Willow, clad in the clothes she turned evil in, with a pale face and black hair. Buffy approached her.

"You saved me?" she asked Willow.

"Of course," Willow replied.

"Why?"  
  


"Because, silly," Willow smiled, "you've already died twice, I thought it would be just stupid if you died a third time."

"Oh."

"Don't worry though, I'm going to correct my mistake," Willow raised a gun and pointed it at the window to the room in which Dawn and Buffy stood. "I'll make everything alright," Willow said and then she fired.

The bullet ripped through the window, shattering it. Buffy looked down and saw she had a hole in her heart. "My shirt," she said.

"Don't worry," Dawn said. "A little soda water will take that right out."

"Why'd Willow do that?" Buffy asked her sister. Dawn didn't answer. Buffy turned to Dawn, but saw she wasn't there anymore. "I wonder where she went." Buffy opened the door and walked out into the hallway of the University of Sunnydale. Students crowded around her as she walked through the hall looking for Dawn. Finally, she stopped a random person as asked "Do you know where my sister is? She's taller than me, shiny brown hair, used to be a mystical key that opened the dimensional gates?" The person shook his head and Buffy sighed. She would never find Dawn in this mass.

Suddenly, she spotted someone she knew. "Riley!" she yelled to him. "Riley! Come here." Finally she saw Riley turn around and look at her.

"Buffy," he said enthusiastically, "I've haven't seen you in ages. When was that last time?"

"You know," Buffy said, "with the dam and the demon and the wife."

"Oh right," Riley smiled wide. "Sam. I remember her. Wow that must have been a while ago, I divorced her a while back."

"Really? Why?"

"She was just too perfect," Riley said, "but I've figured out a solution to that. Here, come with me." He grabbed Buffy's arm and started pulling her towards a door. "By the way, what happened to your shirt?"

"Shot through the heart," Buffy explained. "Didn't hurt as much as I expected."

Riley pushed open the door and led Buffy into a laboratory filled with all sorts of mechanical things, gadgets and widgets and things Buffy didn't recognize. "Where are we?" she asked.

"We are in an old Initiative lab," Riley answered. "I've been spending time here to figure out a solution to all my problems and I've finally found one." He led her to a tall object that was covered by a white sheet.

"What is it?" Buffy asked looking at it.

"I call it the Mechanical Artificial Retractable Yellow-haired – Servile Understanding Entity," Riley whipped off the sheet revealing the thing that was underneath, "or simply MARY-SUE for short."

Buffy looked at the robot. It looked like an exaggerated version of her, with larger hips and breasts and lips and it looked sort of plastic-y. "Isn't she great?" Riley asked her.  
  


"She's so... life-like," Buffy answered. She reached out with her hand to touch its face. Suddenly, a light turned on in the robot's eyes.

"We're very pretty," the robot said.

"How did you make her?" Buffy asked Riley.

"I just duplicated the original Buffybot and made some modifications," Riley said.

"The Buffybot?" Buffy was confused. "I thought she was ripped into pieces by demon bikers?"

"She was," Riley went over to a table that was also covered with a sheet, but this one dirty and covered with stains. "I was able to salvage her enough to build MARY-SUE." He took off the sheet and Buffy saw the Buffybot, or at least what was left of her. The 'bot's left eye was twitching and sparks erupted from the bottom of it. "I guess I'll put her away with all the rest now." Riley picked up the Buffybot and brought her over to a row of containers.

"The rest?"

"The other robots you fought," Riley open an empty container and put the Buffybot in it. "See." Buffy took a look at the containers which all had labels. APRIL (1999-2001), TED BUCHANAN (1965-1998), MOLOCH THE CORRUPTER (AD 700-1996).

"Wasn't Moloch a demon?" Buffy asked looking at the container.

"Aren't we all, Buffy?"

"I don't know about you, but I don't think I am." Suddenly a robotic arm shot up from the container and grabbed Buffy around the neck. She struggled for a moment before ripping the arm off and tossing it across the room where it fell with a clang. "I hate it when they do that."

"Well, Buffy," Riley said, "now that I have shown you MARY-SUE, I don't think you'll want to stick around to see what we do."

Buffy thought for a moment. "Not really."

"Good," Riley said bringing MARY-SUE into his arms and kissing her. "The exit's that way. I'm sure you can find your way out."

As Buffy left she muttered "Geez, get a room." She opened the door and walked straight into the Magic Box. She saw Giles, Xander, Willow, and Anya talking in hushed voices around the table. "So, what's happening? Are we singing again? 'Cause I want some warning this time. Now that Tara is gone, Giles is the only one that sings well."

"Buffy," Giles said surprised, "we thought you with Dawn?"  
  


"I was, but I think I lost her."

"Oh. That's too bad."

"Maybe. So, what are you guys talking about?"

"It seems," Giles said, "that a new demon has come to Sunnydale."

"So what's the prob?" Buffy asked. "We'll do what we always do. First, research – with books and diagrams and pie charts – then we locate the demon – usually in some crypt or hole-in-the-ground – and finally I kill it. Easy as pie. Or possibly, easy as pie chart."

"Actually, it's not the easy, Buffy," Giles wiped his glasses off as he stood up, "see, it's not exactly a demon we're fighting here. It's Death."

"Death?" Buffy was perplexed.

"Yes," Giles put his glasses back on his face, "you see, you have escaped its grasp twice already and it wants to capture you again, this time for good."

"Well, I won't let it."

"You can't stop Death, Buffy. It's as simple as putting a wooden stake through its heart, if it has one."

"Then I'll cut off its head with an ax."

"That won't work."

"Not even with a very large ax?"

"I'm afraid not," Giles sighed. "There is only one thing you can do."

"What's that?" Buffy was scared. If she couldn't cut off Death's head, how could she defeat it?

"You must hide," Giles said.

There was a knock at the Magic Box's door. Buffy turned and looked at the door, terrified of what was on the other side.

"It's here, you must hurry," Giles grabbed her by the shoulders. "Go quickly out through the sewers." There was more knocking on the door as Giles rushed Buffy to the trap door in the back and opened it. "There's little time," Giles told her, "if it finds you, it will take you away from Dawn. You must go now!" He pushed her into the opening.

She was falling now. Falling into a spiraling blackness, a pit of which there was no bottom. She looked up and saw the opening to the trap door getting smaller and smaller, shrinking until it finally disappeared and she was falling in complete darkness. After a few minutes she lost all sense of time and space and could only tell she was moving at all by the rushing wind. She tried to scream but it seemed the sound was caught in the obscurity of her surroundings and she couldn't hear it at all. At last she hit the bottom with a thud, a cloud of dust rising up. She picked herself up and tried to wipe off the dirt unsuccessfully, then looked around at her environs.

She was in the woods, the same place where Willow had tied up Warren with vines and tortured him and then peeled off his skin and burned his body. She looked around, trying to find a place to hide, a place where death wouldn't find her. She saw a nearby church and ran to it. Going inside, she found herself in a jail cell. "I can't hide here," she said to herself. She pulled the bars of the cell apart and squeezed out, then ran to the front of the station, passing a cell with an obviously intoxicated Andrew. She fled out the station and found herself on top of a moving truck. She crawled her way forward to the front of the truck and looked down and saw that Jonathan was driving. "I didn't know he had a license," she said as she saw Jonathan spin the wheel rapidly. She lost her grip on the truck and flew off, landing on a soft cushion. She looked around. She was on the couch in Rack's waiting and Amy was on the floor looking up at the ceiling, drooling. Buffy opened the door to the place Rack had given his costumers a trip and saw Rack's body still hanging from the ceiling. As she looked closer, she saw that it wasn't Rack's body, but rather Xander's. She turned from Xander's body and ran out of the room, going straight into Spike's crypt. She saw Clem and Dawn on the couch, eating potato chips, and disregarded them and she searched for someplace to hide. Running out of Spike's crypt, she entered a small room with a dirt base. She saw Spike, huddled on the floor, hands on hiding his face. "Spike?"

He looked up at her. "You can't be here," he said surprised. "You not allowed in here. This is my hiding place. Go find somewhere else to hide!"

Buffy back away from Spike and he went back to covering his face with his hands. Buffy turned around and ran out the way she came, but found the door stuck. She pulled on it with all her strength, but still it wouldn't budge.

"Getting weak in your old age?" A voice said behind her. Buffy turned and saw the source of the voice: herself. She stood, arms crossed, clad in black.

"We need to get out of here," Buffy told her black-clad self. "Death is chasing us. It's on our heels. We need to hide."

Black-clad Buffy smiled. "You don't understand," she said. "I am Death." Her hand, quick as lightning, grabbed Buffy's throat and lifted Buffy off the ground.

The grip tightening, Buffy clawed at her black-clad self hands, trying to find a way to stop it, but failing. "Spike," she choked out, "help me!"

"Cry William the Bloody all you like, pet," Spike was still huddled on the ground. "I can't hear you."

"Don't you see?" the black-clad Buffy squeezed her fist, making Buffy gasp for air. "You're all alone. You'll always be alone." Buffy went limp in her arms. "Until you die." She dropped Buffy, dead for the third time, on the ground and smiled.


	4. Chapter 3: Giles's Dream

Title: Grains of the Golden Sand  
Author: alliterator  
Summary: "All that we see or seem/Is but a dream within a dream." E. A. Poe, "Dream Within A Dream." Post-Grave, Restless-style.  
Spoilers: Spoilers for Season 7 (or at least foreshadowing).  
Disclaimer: If I owned Buffy, do you think I'd be writing fanfiction? The lyrics are from Cream's "Tales of Brave Ulysses."  
Feedback: You think I'm going to say no?

Author's Note: I wrote this chapter while listening to the Suite from "Restless." Incredible music. Chris Beck is a composing genius.

Giles's Dream

Giles looked up at the ruins of the Magic Box. _Well, old chap, he thought, __looks like another place you worked at got destroyed. He walked inside the store, the broken door swinging to and fro in the wind. __Am I sure it's safe in here? The Magic Box's insides were worse than its outsides. Giles brushed his fingertips along the edges of the table in the center of the room where he, Buffy, Xander, and Willow had met so many times. Ash covered the place and when Giles lifted his hand he saw that it covered his fingers, too. __What shall I do with the place? The store has been a haven to me ever since I bought it. Almost like the library._

"Doesn't look that bad to me." Giles looked towards the entrance and saw Anya walking in the store. She was carrying an umbrella in her hand and wore a necklace of pearl around her neck.

"I don't think it's safe in here," Giles said to her.

"Nonsense," Anya said. She walked around the rubble and picked up an old book that once had text in it. She opened the book and started sneezing.

"Here, let me help you," Giles took the book from her hand, closed it, and put it on the floor.

"I had forgotten about the smelling," Anya said.

"Smelling?"

"A vengeance demon has a much better sense of smell than normal humans."

"I thought you stopped being a vengeance demon?"

"Oh didn't I tell you?" Anya pointed at the pearl necklace she wore. "I rejoined."

"That's excellent, I think," Giles leaned in to take a closer look at the pearls. "I thought vengeance demons wore necklaces with pendants."

"I thought a pendant would be too old fashioned," Anya said. "Pearls are more modern, right?"

"In the 1920s maybe."

"Ooh, I knew I should have asked for chain, but I thought it would be too uncomfortable."

Giles looked down and saw the umbrella in her hand. "Why the umbrella? Is it raining?"

"It will be."

Giles walked to the door and looked outside. It was so bright that the light blinded him and he had to shade his eyes. He pulled back inside. "Doesn't look like it's going to rain soon." But Anya was gone.

A shadow caught Giles's eye and he looked up to the place where all the dark magic books used to be. There was a figure there. "Anya?" The figure didn't respond. _Could be burglars here to rob us of what little possessions we have left. Giles decided to see who it was. He gripped the black ladder that led to the space up top and started to climb. Each step became an obstacle, every second the air grew heavier and Giles strained to lift himself up. When he reached to top step, he was drenched in sweat and his glasses were slipping off his nose. He tried to catch them, but his hands were too slow and his glasses fell onto the ground far below._

Giles climbed onto the space where the dark magic books had been and looked at the dark figure. He couldn't see well without his glasses. All of the figure he saw was the long flowing hair and the rest was blurred. "You won't be stealing anything with me here," he told the person. The person came forward and Giles could make out that it was a girl, but definitely not Anya. The girl raised her hand and came near Giles. "What do you think you're–" The girl pushed Giles and he went sprawling off the space and into the void below.

Giles happened to land on the couch of his flat. Sitting up, he heard opera playing upstairs and he looked around. A bottle of wine and two wine glasses were on the table, along with a note that said 'upstairs'. There was an envelope, too, and when Giles opened it, he saw a charcoal drawing of himself. _I remember this. Jenny... she's up there. Giles looked up the stairs and saw the row of candles lit on each step. The music continued to play._

Giles grabbed the wine bottle and started to lightly tiptoe up the stairs, frightened that he would have to see Jenny's dead body sprawled on the bed again, but unable to control his motions. Jenny's lifeless body, rose petals surrounding her like a halo, her head tilted in an unnatural position. He had stared at it for the longest time. The coroner had told him that her neck had snapped. When he was younger, he often thought about dying. He had thought the worst way was to be eviscerated, but after Jenny's death he realized it was having ones neck snapped.

He reached the top of the staircase and saw where he had dropped the wine bottle the last time. There was a dark stain there and he could see his reflection in the stain. He looked up from the rug and looked at the bed, his eyes betraying fear. It was worse than he thought.

On the bed was himself, head titled back, neck snapped. Giles gripped the wine bottle in his hands as he gazed upon his dead body and music played. He raised the wine bottle above his head and threw it at the wall, shattering it into a thousand pieces. Wine dripped from the wall, staining the carpet again. Giles turned and hurried down the stairs, sometimes skipping two or three steps. He ran to his door and rushed out.

Giles glanced around. _Where am I? His surroundings looked somewhat like the Bronze, but the audience sat in rows and rows of seats and the stage was filled with red curtains and a giant wheel. Giles could see Buffy, Dawn, Willow, Anya, and Xander strapped to different sections of the wheel. He approached the stage to see what was going on._

Suddenly, on stage appeared Spike, clad in a tuxedo and a top hat. He held a silver tipped cane in his hand and he swirled it around. Abruptly, he pointed the cane at Giles. "What's your name?"

Giles looked up at him. "Rupert Giles."

"Well, Ru-pert," Spike said, "today is your lucky day." He held out his hand and Giles took it, climbing on board the stage.

"What is all this?" Giles asked him.

"Well, Ru-pert, you get to spin the Wheel!" Spike pointed at the giant wheel with his friends attached to it. "Just pull that lever and spin it."

"Why?"

"Why? For the greatest prize of all, of course. When you land on the right one, you get..." he leaned next to Giles's ear and whispered "epru.".

"And what would that be?" Giles asked. "Oh never mind. Which one's the right one?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out," Spike said. His lips curled, exposing his teeth. "It's time! It's time for you to...

Spin the Wheel

It's quite easy

As long as you don't get queasy

It goes round and round

Just don't make a sound."

Giles interrupted Spike's singing to go over and pull the lever. The Wheel started to turn.

"If it hits the Slayer

Bow your head and say your prayer

Look out, no one wants the Key

You can't give her away for free."

Giles half listened to the song while watching the wheel spin faster and faster. He really hoped that it would land on the right one.

"Watch your skin with the Witch

She will make it crawl and twitch

Nothing saves you from the Demon

She likes to stomp and crush wee men

Nothing frightens the Normal

Just don't ask him to the formal."

The Wheel was whirling now, going at the speed of light.

"Spin the Wheel

It's not hard

But it will leave you scared and scarred."

Suddenly, the Wheel stopped and only one person was left on it.

"Take it easy; catch your breath

A few more minutes, you'll face Death!"

Spike laughed as Giles looked up and saw that only Buffy was left on the Wheel. She jumped down, landing with a thud on the stage. Spike backed away from her in fear as she came forward to Giles.

"What-what's the prize?" Giles stammered, confused at why Buffy was coming toward him.

Buffy smiled, baring her pearly whites. "This," she said bringing up her hand and opening it. Grains of earth fell from her hand and Giles saw as she fell to the ground. "Epru."

"Dust," Giles said in realization. _Epru is Sumerian for dust. Why would dust be a gift? He had no time to ponder this when he saw Buffy now carried a knife in her hand. She stuck out the knife and Giles felt it imbed in his gut. Reeling back, he turned, stumbled and started to run through the red curtains, searching for the exit. Music started to play in the background._

_You thought the leaden winter would bring you down forever,_

_But you rode upon a steamer to the violence of the sun._

Giles, bleeding, pulled open the exit doors and ran through them. Giles looked around, confused at the zigzag hallway that he was in. He ran down the corridor, dripping blood on the clean tile floor, and looked at each door. Each said something else: SPIRIT, HEART, MIND, HAND, DEATH, LIFE. He slipped and fell down and struggled to get back up. He put his hand on the floor and pushed up, leaving a bloody hand. He hadn't even realized blood was on his hands, now he's getting it on everything else.

_And the colors of the sea blind your eyes with trembling mermaids,_

_And you touch the distant beaches with tales of brave Ulysses._

He limped along the hallway now, one hand holding his wound, the other holding the wall for support. He left a streak of blood behind him and as he hobbled along, he tried to read where each door led. POWER. DESTRUCTION. HATE. LOVE. GIVE. FORGIVE. The doors all blended into one as Giles finally stopped and fell to his knees. He looked down and saw that before him was a pit with pikes in it, each one sharp enough to pierce his flesh.

_How his naked ears were tortured by the sirens sweetly singing,_

_For the sparkled waves are calling you to kiss their white laced lips._

Giles continued staring at the pit beneath, until he heard a voice. He looked up and saw that Buffy was next to him. "Buffy?"

A smile came to her face, but not like the one she had given to him before on the stage. This one lit up her face and he realized it _was Buffy and she would save him. She held out her hand and Giles reached for it, but then she took it and pushed him into the pit. He fell and was impaled in the pikes. Looking up, he saw Buffy's happy, grinning face._

_And you see a girl's brown body dancing through the turquoise,_

_And her footprints make you follow where the sky loves the sea._


	5. Chapter 4: Anya's Dream

Grains of the Golden Sand

Anya's Dream

It was her wedding day and she couldn't stop crying. She didn't know why she was crying, but she knew she couldn't stop. Tears flowed down her cheeks and she hurriedly tried to brush them away. Looking at her hands, she saw they were covered in red and she realized she was crying tears, she was crying blood.

"Why am I crying blood?" she asked.

"Because," Xander said, "it's always got to be the blood. Don't you remember?"

Anya looked with her red eyes and said, "You left me. Why are you here?"

He smiled and Anya couldn't help smile with him. "I'm always here," Xander said. "I'll always be with you. Till death do us part."

"Do you really mean that?" Anya asked.

"Of course, I do," Xander said and he leaned over to kiss her.

Xander abruptly stopped mid-kiss and Anya could feel blood on her lips, blood that wasn't hers. Xander opened his mouth and more blood poured out and Anya saw the blade coming out of his chest and there was more blood, so much blood, too much blood. It was a river of blood.

Xander fells to the floor and behind him was Buffy, her sword imbedded in Xander's back, her face a stone glare.

"Why?" Anya shouted. Buffy said nothing, she just removed the bloody sword from Xander's back. "You're not real!" Anya shouted as Buffy approached her. "You're not real, you're only a dream!" Buffy raised the sword up high and…

Anya awoke. She clutched her chest, trying to regulate her breathing. _What was that?_ she though. She got up from the chair she had been sleeping on and looked around the room. Giles was sleeping on the couch and she wondered what he could be dreaming about. From the pained expression on his face, it didn't look like it was good.

She sighed and went to the kitchen. _Well, if I'm awake, I'm going to eat something,_ she thought. _Ooh, cookies!_ She grabbed the box of cookies from the shelf and started to munch them down one at a time.

_I wonder what Xander is dreaming about? No, no, I don't. I don't care about Xander. Xander is stupid and useless and fat. Well, okay, maybe not fat. But he needs to lay off the thin mints._

Anya put the cookies back on the shelf and she left the kitchen and tiptoed up the stairs. _I really shouldn't be doing this,_ she thought. _But I guess it doesn't matter. I can just teleport out if he wakes up and he'll never know I was there._

She slowly entered Buffy's room, where Willow was soundly sleeping on the bed and Xander was snoring on the floor. Anya looked at him with quiet curiosity. _Okay, maybe he wasn't useless, she thought. Maybe…_

"Anya."

Anya quickly turned around at the mention of her name and saw Buffy in the doorway. Her face was shrouded by shadows.

"Buffy," Anya said, "I thought you were asleep. This, uh, this isn't what it looks like. I'm not watching him in his sleep, honestly. I just wanted to get, uh, more pillows. That's right, more pillows, because the chair downstairs is lumpy and uncomfortable."

Buffy stayed silent.

"Well," Anya said, "I'll just be going then. Back downstairs. To the lumpy chair. Bye." Anya tried to squeeze past Buffy, but she completely blocked the doorway. "Could you scoot a bit, please?" Anya asked. "I'm trying to get out here."

Buffy's hands shot forward and covered Anya's mouth. Anya tried to teleport away, but she couldn't, her legs wouldn't move, her arms stayed by her side, her body was paralyzed. _What's wrong with me?_ she thought.

"Shh," Buffy said. She turned to look at Willow. "She's sleeping. But don't worry. She's just a big faker."

Anya tried to scream, tried to move her legs, her arms, any part of her body, but she couldn't. She started to cry and she felt the blood tearsmove down her face.

She looked with her red eyes as Buffy swiftly moved her arms and snapped her neck.


End file.
